“In
that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.”
John 14:20.
In
the previous meditation we considered what “that Day” is – however we turn the kaleidoscope
of the Word of God in the Light of Jesus Christ, certainly those who are in a
relationship with Jesus Christ are living in that Day. This leads to the
question, “Do we know that Jesus Christ is in the Father, that we are in Jesus
Christ, and that Jesus Christ is within us?”
Do
we speak and act as if we know? Do we witness to Jesus as if we know? Do we
love one another as if we know? Do we tell the truth as if we know? Do we spend
our money as if we know? Do we read and share the Bible as if we know?
Are
we living in communion with the Trinity, or is God a far–off God to us?
Does
the fabric of our lives demonstrate that we are living in the reality of John
14:20?
Paul
writes that we have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out,
“Abba! Father!” “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are the
children of God.” (Romans 8:15 – 16).
Now
dear friends, beloved of our Father, does it not make sense for a father to
speak to his children? Does it not make sense for an elder brother to speak to
his siblings? How can we read the Upper Room (John chapters 13 – 17) and not
see the deep theme of intimacy with the Trinity and with one another?
A
tragic irony is that many Christians who profess to have a high view of
Scripture think and teach that our Father no longer speaks to us because we
have the Bible. This thinking betrays misunderstanding on at least two fronts.
The
first misunderstanding regards epistemology, how do we know things? In our
context it specifically has to do with, “How do we know the Scriptures? How are
we to understand them?”
In
the Upper Room Jesus speaks to us again and again about the Holy Spirit living
in us and teaching us. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 1:17 – 2:16, teaches us that “the
natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God…” (2:14a), and yet well
– meaning Christians anchor their epistemology and exegesis and interpretation
(and therefore their teaching and preaching) on natural methods, on methods
that do not require reliance upon the Holy Spirit, that do not require the
revelation (unveiling) of Jesus Christ.
When
we give any method primacy or equality over the Holy Spirit and Biblical
epistemology, including the grammatical – historical method, we display a
fundamental misunderstanding of our Biblical relationship with God and of
Scripture and we disregard Biblical
epistemology.
The
second misunderstanding regards our nature as new creations in Christ Jesus,
our new nature as daughters and sons of the Living God. “Because you are sons,
God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’”
We are to come to the Scriptures not as strangers to God, not as slaves, not as
sinners, not as those in bondage to sin and the Law, nor even as minor children
(Gal. 4:1 – 5; Rom. 8:1 – 17), but as adult sons and daughters partaking of
the Divine nature of our Father and our Lord Jesus in the Holy Spirit (2
Peter 1:4).
Do
we not see the irony in preaching on the one hand that we must be born again,
and then, on the other hand, once we are born again we teach, “Yeah but, while
you may be born again, while you may be a new creation, your essential identity
remains that of a sinner and you can expect to live the life of a sinner”?
Would
a kind father, whose wealth is beyond measure, have his children scour the alleys
and gutters of the world to find sustenance, when his pantries are full of good
food and drink to overflowing?
How
can it be that we do not know the living reality of Jesus’ words in John 14:20?
Few
professing Christians are functionally Trinitarian, for the Holy Spirit is
usually, at best, nebulous and distant – at worst I suppose He is a functional
non-entity. For those who do speak of the Holy Spirit, and for those who are
open to His manifestations – John 14:20 is seldom a reality because they are
focused on external manifestations and surface experiences rather than intimate
koinonia in which we are transformed into the image of Jesus Christ (Rom. 8:29;
2 Cor. 3:17 – 18) as individuals and as His People.
Writing
about John 14:20 is one of the hardest things I’ve done, it has been a tough
reality check – for if what Jesus is saying is true, then we need a wake-up
call. We do not need excuses, we need to examine just how it is that the idea
and reality of John 14:20 is foreign to Christians – do we have the courage to
do this?
We
can pride ourselves on orthodoxy, but there is the orthodoxy of doctrine and
dogma, and there is the orthodoxy of life in Christ – and to think that we can
have the one without the other (though I think we are always - hopefully – in transformative process in
both respects) is simply foolish. Our Biblical understanding and teaching ought
to inform our experience in Christ, and our experience in Christ ought to
inform our teaching and understanding – the two really can’t be bifurcated…not
really.
For
us, as God’s People, not to live in John 14:20 means that we do not really know
what Day we are living in.
Jesus
has given us His very own glory (John 17:22) that we may know unity with one
another in the Trinity – ought we not to receive and rejoice in the glory of
Christ in this New Day?
When
Judas (not Iscariot) asks Jesus in 14:22, “What then has happened?” The answer
is that Jesus has brought us a New Day. Am I living in the Day? Are we?
Are
you?
